Up, up, and away! If you have ever made a wish and blown the fluff of a dandelion, you have witnessed how some plants are adapted to spreading their seeds using the wind. The tiny, furry parachute allows the seeds to be picked up by the wind and to be carried far away from their parent plant. In this experiment, you will make models of seeds and fruit to investigate dispersal by wind and to evaluate
the relationship between the structure of the seed and its ability to be dispersed by the…
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Do you like your strawberry jelly with or without the seeds? Are you glad to have a seed-free watermelon, or do you enjoy spitting the seeds into the garden? You might not like to find seeds in your fruit, but fruit is the plant's way of dispersing seeds to make new plants. How many seeds can be dispersed for each type of fruit? As they say, in one end and out the other!
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Have you ever heard someone say, "that plant is thirsty" or "give that plant a drink of water"? We know that plants, and even bouquets of cut flowers, need water to survive, but have you ever thought about how the water moves within the plant? In this science project, you will use colored water and carnations to figure out where the water goes.
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PlantBio_p033

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Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

None

Material Availability

Readily available

Cost

Very Low (under $20)

Safety

Adult assistance required to cut flower stems.
If child is allergic to food dye, then adult assistance is required to add and mix the dye.

Everyone loves the beautiful colors of fall, but where do they come from and how does the change in colors happen? In this project, you will uncover the hidden colors of fall by separating plant pigments with paper chromatography. What colors will you see?
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Do you like to watch outdated science fiction and cheesy horror movies? Many fictional tales of cloned organisms have been created based upon the scientific method for cloning animals or plants. In the real world, the cloning of plants is a common method used in modern farming. How do you clone a plant?
In this science project you will get to find out by making your own cabbage clones!
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Plants need nitrogen to build proteins and nucleic acids to grow healthy stems and leaves. Though the Earth's atmosphere is made up of 79% nitrogen, the form of nitrogen found in the atmosphere cannot be used by plants. In this experiment, you will compare plants grown without nitrogen fertilizer to plants grown with nitrogen fertilizer.
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Leaves use sunlight to make food for the plant. Sunlight contains all of the colors of the rainbow, but are all of those colors used by the leaf? Can you find out if some colors of light are more important than others?
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Have you ever enjoyed eating a tasty sweet potato? They can be served as yummy mashed sweet potatoes with melted butter, turned into golden-brown sweet potato fries, or prepared in many other scrumptious ways. Did you know that you can make a sweet potato grow into a sweet potato plant, and grow several sweet potatoes this way? In this science project, you will grow your own sweet potato plants and investigate what part of the sweet potatoes is needed to grow the plants.
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Like humans, plants can be negatively affected by overcrowding. Unlike humans, plants cannot get up and move to a new environment or explore how to utilize new resources. This experiment will explore the effects of crowding (population density) on the growth and health of plants.
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PlantBio_p011

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Time Required

Very Long (1+ months)

Prerequisites

Background research on biomes, ecosystems, population density, and the basic needs of plants.

As we humans zip from place to place, we often forget to stop and smell the roses. Compared to our fast-paced lifestyle, plants seem rooted to the spot. Don't be deceived by appearances however, plants are on the move! This experiment will investigate the stimulus/response relationship in plants and prove that plants can move up and down in response to gravity.
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PlantBio_p014

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Time Required

Short (2-5 days)

Prerequisites

Experience with a digital camera and digital imaging software is helpful

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